House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is rejecting the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s call for him to testify on his private communications, rebuking the “illegitimate” investigation as an “abuse of power.”
McCarthy had already rejected the legitimacy of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on the formation of the committee, pulling the five Republican nominees when she attempted to deny Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Jim Banks, R-Ind., seats on the committee.
“This committee is not conducting a legitimate investigation as Speaker Pelosi took the unprecedented action of rejecting the Republican members I named to serve on the committee,” McCarthy wrote in a pointed statement. “It is not serving any legislative purpose. The committee’s only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents – acting like the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee one day and the DOJ the next.”
The committee has already shown unconstitutional and unlawful violations of privacy, manipulation of evidence, and a propensity to hold even willful participants – like former White House chief of staff Mark Meadow – in contempt of Congress when they are not given what they want to hear, according to McCarthy.
“The committee has demanded testimony from staffers who applied for First Amendment permits,” his statement continued. “It has subpoenaed the call records of private citizens and their financial records from banks while demanding secrecy not supported by law.
“It has lied about the contents of documents it has received. It has held individuals in contempt of Congress for exercising their Constitutional right to avail themselves of judicial proceedings.”
McCarthy said his comments material to Jan. 6 are public already and his private communications are “not remotely related” and “have nothing else to add.”
“And now it wants to interview me about public statements that have been shared with the world, and private conversations not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol,” he wrote. “I have nothing else to add.
“As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward.”
